Conquerors: How Portugal Seized the Indian Ocean and Forged the First Global Empire

by Roger Crowley

Meanwhile the Portuguese were heartened to hear that four ships of Indian Christians had arrived recently in Malindi, and in due course these ‘Christians’ came aboard. When they were shown a picture of Christ on the cross and his mother, ‘they prostrated themselves, and as long as we were there they came to say their prayers in front of it, bringing offerings of cloves, pepper, and other things’. Their ships evidently possessed cannon and gunpowder; they lit up the night sky with a spectacular display of rockets and bombards in honour of their co-religionists; their shouts of ‘Christ! Christ!’ split the air, and they warned Gama, via an exchange in imperfect Arabic, neither to go ashore nor to trust Muslims. They were unlike any Christians the Portuguese had ever seen. ‘These Indians are tawny men,’ he noted in his diary. ‘They wear but little clothing and have long beards and long hair, which they braid. They told us that they ate no beef.’ In the midst of this cultural confusion it is likely that these long-hoped-for co-religionists were actually shouting ‘Krishna! Krishna!’